Mr Trump repeatedly railed against the deal on the campaign trail, calling it a "disaster" which would destroy American jobs.

But British officials are now scoping out the possibility of joining up, despite the UK being thousands of miles from the Pacific Rim area.

Trade minister Greg Hands told the Financial Times that "with these kind of plurilateral relationships, there doesn’t have to be any geographical restriction”.

Elsewhere, International Trade Secretary Liam Fox fired a New Year’s message to pro-European campaigners, telling them to “get beyond the obsession with criticising Brexit”.

In a piece for ConservativeHome, Dr Fox suggested it was “easy to get the impression that these people would rather see Britain fail than see Brexit succeed”.

“One of my most frequent, and frustrating, experiences of 2017 was returning from a positive and optimistic international visit only to encounter a wave of negativism at home,” he wrote.

“The interest being shown in Britain overseas, and an increasing willingness to trade and invest with us, was in stark contrast to the self-defeating pessimism that is too often on show from certain politicians, commentators and media outlets over here.”

Contributions from readers

graham669

11:07 on 3rd January 2018

This is never going to happen if May wants to avoid the environmental protections of EU membership, she will find the TPP conditions too onerous.
The TPP is not only about trade, it is also about environmental management, including fishing quotas, to protect over fishing. That is why madman trump pulled the US out.
Liam Fox is just another one of our incompetent, inept and hopeless tory cabinet ministers.
A tie up between the EU and the TPP would make a lot more sense!